No money, no staff, no chance – but independent mayoral candidate Siobhan Benita is getting London excited
Someone asked me on Monday if I thought the term Parish Council led people to value Parish Councils less than Town Councils (which only effectively have the same powers)? This got me thinking not just about the importance of our most local tier of councils, but about the need for democratic renewal more broadly in terms of rural England.
I know the idea of mayors is not everyone’s cup of tea but as this story demonstrates there is scope for them to generate real interest in local democracy and for them to draw new people into local politics.
In France mayors at the Parish Level have real clout – I wonder if there is some value amongst all this talk of localism in replicating that idea in terms of English Local Government?
As for the article itself it tells us of the independent candidate Sioahn Benita:
“Last October, she left her job as a civil servant in the Department of Health to embark on a new “career” as an independent candidate in this year’s election. She had no money, no staff, no party and, frankly, no hope against the political juggernauts of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. Today, six months on, her chances of winning may still be tiny but her campaign is generating excitement. Her odds of success on 3 May have fallen from 500/1 to 50/1 and she stands a decent chance of pushing the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick into a humiliating fourth or even fifth slot. His odds of winning are now 100/1.”